Knight not surprised by Tech's success

Posted: Friday, March 15, 2002

Brent SchrotenboerMorris News Service

CHICAGO - The question is getting old. After 23 wins, eight losses and an eye-opening berth in the NCAA Tournament, the most popular query of the season is the surprise story of Texas Tech head coach Bob Knight.

Not a chance. According to popular legend, Knight knew he'd get this far all the way back in September, more than five months before his prediction officially comes true tonight at the sold-out United Center. Sixth-seeded Tech (23-8) faces 11th-seeded Southern Illinois (26-7) in a first-round game at 6:50 p.m.

"If you talked to the players, I think they would tell you what I told them before the season," Knight said. "I thought we would have a chance to do at least this well."

Officially, Knight gave himself some wiggle room. His range was 17-24 wins to end the regular season. Tech ended up with 21, giving the Red Raiders the year's best one-year turnaround in Division I college basketball.

Credit Knight for making the call before the season.

Though he's not exactly Miss Cleo, his fortune-telling went like this:

* The key was his players, seven of whom were newcomers, four of whom were returning scholarship players from a team that finished 9-19 in 2001. Combined, Knight said his new team possessed more talent than any of his last five teams at Indiana, each of which won at least 20 games and went to the NCAA Tournament.

"He's said all along we could be good because we have the talent," Tech freshman guard Nathan Doudney said. "He said we could be better than any of the teams we've had at Indiana the last five years. I took that to mean that his last five teams had made the tournament, and we better make the tournament if we were that good. It surprised me. I had never played college before and didn't know what it took to win. Now I can see why I said that."

Tech is making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1996.

* Knight, who was hired by Tech last March 23, drove his point home again during a pre-game conversation with Oklahoma State head coach Eddie Sutton Feb. 6.

"I said to him, `The thing that I don't think people have quite grasped is that we have pretty damn good players,"' Knight said. "These kids deserve an unbelievable amount of credit. These kids came in. We brought guys off the bench to play, and they brought themselves together as a team. I've enjoyed working with this team as much as any I've ever had, particularly how they've gone about doing things most of the time."

* In 12 non-conference games, Knight made a preseason guess that Tech was capable of winning them all, but a 9-3 record was more like it. "I thought every (non-conference opponent)was beatable," Knight said. "I didn't think we would be mature enough or mentally tough enough to win all 12 games. At least in terms of what my thoughts were, we did extremely well in non-conference games."

* In 16 Big 12 Conference games, Knight thought his team would at least finish 8-8 but was capable of finishing 12-4. The Red Raiders finished in the middle of the two at 10-6.

"The highest I could conceivably hope for was for us to win 12 games and not to get below 8-8," Knight said. "We actually did pretty well there also."

* Above all else, Knight said he is "really pleased at what we did," if not the least bit surprised by it. He views the season from three different standpoints.

One is close games. Tech won three of its six games this season decided by four or less points. The three Tech lost continue to haunt him and the players, including a 69-65 loss against Sam Houston State Nov. 24. Tech led in that game by as much as 19 points.

"So as good as things went for us, they actually could have been better," Knight said.

* The other two standpoints are conference finish and performance against good teams. Only two teams finished above Tech in the Big 12: Kansas and Oklahoma. On the other hand, both beat Tech by at least 26 points. Tech also lost at Texas 96-71 on Feb. 26.

"You can look at it and look at it, and you can say this looks pretty good, and then look at the times we were beaten badly," Knight said. "That's not so good."

-- The next step in a storybook season comes tonight against the Salukis. Knight's players still remember what he told them before the season.

" He told us we had a chance to be real good," Tech starting forward Kasib Powell said. "You know, we kind of went out there and listened to him. He knew we could be good, and I guess that's why we are as good as we are now. We believed we could be good as well."

It all started in September when Knight got his first real "feel" for his new players. He didn't make his opinion public, though. Big 12 coaches and media were predicting Tech to finish no higher than ninth in the league. Asked for his prediction before the season, Knight said, "I have no idea."

Now he knows what he's got for next year, too. Tech loses just one starter from this year's team and has signed three newcomers to begin later this fall.